I'm making an iOS/Android app using Xamarin (not Xamarin.Forms, just regular Xamarin). I'm using the shared library set up rather than PCL. I want my app to call an Azure function but I'm unsure of the safest/best way to handle this. I have it set to "Function" for the "Authorization level". The test URL includes the "?code=..." portion in it. I was under the impression that if I put that in my C# code with the "code" value exposed that it was considered a bad idea from a security perspective.
I'm lost as to the safest/best way to deal with this. I've read that setting it in app.config is also a bad idea. I found some references for a web app that suggest using the connection strings that are available in the azure portal, but since this isn't a web app, I'm unsure of how I'd actually retrieve those values in my code (or if that's even possible).
So how would you suggest I handle setting the value for "code" so that I can call my function and avoid a security problem?
UPDATE: Providing more info as per request:
I'm using MSAL to authenticate my users with a B2C active directory. I already have that part working and have received a token authenticating the user.
I also just now enabled authentication in my functions.
I was under the impression that to call my function from my mobile client I had to make a new HttpRequestMessage. I'm unsure of then what I'd place in it to pass my token along.
Just to make sure I understand, your concern is about embedding secrets (the ?code=XXX value) in your iOS/Android app, correct? If so, yes, this is generally considered bad security practice. It's best to assume that anyone who can download your app will have the ability to discover these secrets and use them any way they want.
The recommended way to authenticate with a backend service, such as Azure Functions, from a mobile device is to use interactive authentication - i.e. some kind of OAuth flow. You can build it yourself, or you can use the built-in functionality of Azure Functions and Azure App Service to help you (Azure Functions is built on top of App Service). Here is a resource which might be useful:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/app-service/app-service-authentication-overview
https://contos.io/working-with-identity-in-an-azure-function-1a981e10b900#.vcjit3ntw
The API Key (code) is indeed not meant to be used by clients you distribute externally, so it shouldn't be used by your mobile app.
The most straight forward option here would be to use the built in App Service Authentication features with Azure Functions and implement an authentication flow in your app, which would allow you to securely authenticate the user.
Sharing more information about your scenario may help identify alternatives.
Related
So my project has got a two asp.net projects. One is for showing date(User Interface) and the another one is API(for background processes like login, database calls and etc.). Right now my app has Username and Password feature to login. I have setup a startup class in my API which authenticates the user and pass the user token. Now I want to add a feature to login through Azure portal.
Can anyone suggest me a good practice in this situation? Like I don't want to change my code and just add a feature. Should I make changes in API or Web or Both? Meanwhile I was reading about expose api in app registration. Will it be appropriate to use it just for login purposes?
Azure AD supports OAuth2, OIDC and SAML. See more information here. It is probably best to introduce the mechanism through the API first, since it would apply to the frontend as well (though slight modifications may be required there as well).
I have a .Net 5 Web API hosted on Azure App Service.
The API has three Background services running as hosted services, which perform long running processes such as bulk emailing and SMSing, as well as other functionality that runs once a day on a timer.
I am thinking about moving out these hosted/background services into separate Azure Functions, which I would then call / trigger from my API via an HTTP request (except for the one that runs on a timer)
My concern is regarding authentication. How does that work with Azure Functions? Currently, my Web API is using Auth0 as the authentication server. So, when the user uses the front-end web app (Angular), he logs in (via Auth0's login form) and then the front-end retrieves an access/bearer token from AUth0, which it then includes in every call to the API (in an Authentication header).
Now, obviously I don't want just anyone to be able to call the Azure Functions - only my Web API should be able to do so. But how does that work? Does the API need to forward the access token it received from the front end to the Azure Function when calling it? Or is there something I need to set up in Azure Portal to tell it that my API must be allowed access to the Azure Function (and block any requests from any other origin)?
I've never used Azure Functions or even WebJobs before, so I'm a bit lost.
Thanks
When creating an HTTP-triggered Azure Function, by default it is set to have authorization level = Function, which means that any app trying to invoke that function via its URL needs to know the specific access key that is generated for that function upon creation.
In your example, your web API would store that function's invocation URL and access key in its configuration, and invoke your function with that key. Since the key remains entirely server-side on Azure, nothing else can access it, so it's completely secure.
Depending on your requirements, you can then also layer other types of authorization/authentication (e.g. bearer token) on top of the access key mechanism, or use those instead of access keys (by setting the function to allow anonymous access).
For maximum security, I would recommend using both the function access key as a first step to ensure that nobody except your apps can successfully invoke the function, and then passing along and authenticating the bearer token to ensure that the app trying to invoke that function is indeed permitted to do so.
Just be aware that Azure Functions is a slightly different beast to standard ASP.NET Core, particularly in regards to middleware which it doesn't really support yet, so you'll likely need to roll your own code for reading the bearer token from the incoming HTTP request's headers, and verifying that it's valid.
Reference: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-functions/functions-bindings-http-webhook-trigger?tabs=csharp#authorization-keys
For this requirement, you just need to enable "Authentication/Authorization" of your function app.
Follow the steps in the screenshot above and when you click the forth red box, choose "Express" tab and click "ok" at the bottom of the page without do anything. It will create an application in your Azure AD which has same name with your function app.
After that, when you request the function app url in browser, it will ask you to login.
For more details of the steps, you can refer to this document.
Hury's guidance is best - you want to avoid using API keys on your production functions and use this just for testing. Official guidance is here:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-functions/functions-bindings-http-webhook-trigger?tabs=in-process%2Cfunctionsv2&pivots=programming-language-csharp#secure-an-http-endpoint-in-production
Configure your Functions for AuthorizationLevel.Anonymous, and require Authentication on your Function as Hury describes. This will not only require end users to authenticate, but supports System Assigned Managed Identity when your function is called from other App Services. Less keys to vault or configure means less to steal.
Depends on what you mean by authentication.
If you just want to secure your functions you can use the authorization level = function.
However, if you need authentication with login, and you need to know the user making the request, you have to use bearer token with OpenIDConnect server.
Always use stateless authentication regardless your method.
I've implemented an ASP.NET Web API app as an Azure App Service. It has an App Registration, everything works as expected. I can hit the API from a browser and see all the JSON it returns. Now what I want to do is ensure that nothing except one or more applications from a set list can actually get anything from this endpoint. The applications needing access will all be custom ones in my organization/tenant. With all the flexibility and options, I'm having a very hard time determining what I need to do to lock the API down in this way.
I was envisioning having some client secrets the API knows about, and let the authorized applications supply them. Other methods would certainly be acceptable.
I'm certain this must be a duplicate question, but due to the plethora of information out there, and the myriad techniques for running applications on Azure, I can't seem to find just the right solution for my simple case.
It sounds like you have implemented interactive browser redirect-based authentication on the API.
Instead, you should implement JWT authentication on the API.
Then in Azure AD you can define permissions that can be granted to client applications.
In that way you can control which app can do what.
https://joonasw.net/view/azure-ad-authentication-aspnet-core-api-part-1
https://joonasw.net/view/azure-ad-authentication-aspnet-core-api-part-2
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/develop/scenario-protected-web-api-overview
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/develop/v2-permissions-and-consent
I developed my Heroku app that exposes APIs only (no UI) and it works fine.
But how can I restrict the APIs to certain authorized/authenticated users only?
I absolutely need an authentication layer to protect the app APIs and prevent unauthorized accesses. A sort of login(user, psw) call to use before an external system can start invoking my API.
But I don't find any reference in the docs, it only says that these are the main security best practices:
Heroku SSL
Force the use of HTTPS
Trusted IP Range
Any idea?
That's something you'll need to implement at the application layer and not something that Heroku provides. At it's simplest you could implement basic auth in your app so that the user would pass them with their request, a more complex solution would involve user accounts and oauth etc etc.
You could implement all the authentication logic directly in your app.
Alternatively, take a look Auth0, which basically provides you with authentication and identity management as a service. You can easily add Auth0 to your Heroku app as a free add-on via the Heroku Elements marketplace.
They have lots of different use-cases and associated walk-throughs, and they offer a very generous free-tier.
From your requirements, it sounds like you might want to look at Auth0 Machine to Machine applications, using the OAuth2 Client Credentials Grant. With that, your external system(s) would basically need to authenticate with Auth0 using a Client Id and Client Secret (that you could generate in Auth0 and supply to them). Then, they would access your API with a JWT that you could easily validate in your app (Auth0 will provide you with generated code in many different languages for you to do that very easily). Your API will then reject requests without a valid JWT (by sending a "401 Unauthorized" response).
This may all sound a little intimidating at first, but it's really worth going through the relevant Auth0 "quickstart". They really go out of their way to try to make it as easy as possible!
We have a multi-instance Saas Application:
Each of our clients is given their own instance and their own subdomain for the site.
Our application (Web app & API) is protected by Azure, currently with the ADAL javascript libraries
We also have a second API for system-level integration that needs to be protected, currently using a second 'native' azure app, but this is likely incorrect and we want to consolidate
Our application reads and writes to the Azure AD both through the AzureAD Graph API and Microsoft Graph API (including password reset calls)
We're looking at Azure AD application configuration options and want to make sure we're building the most sensible and secure Azure AD Application. Here are some of the documentation we've been looking at:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/develop/active-directory-integrating-applications
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/develop/active-directory-v2-protocols-oauth-client-creds
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/architecture/multitenant-identity/
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/develop/active-directory-v2-compare
We want the application to be multi-tenant to ease configuration, and allow availability in the Gallery; but when looking into doing so we're left with some security questions.
A. Which application version to use
1) v1. Allows access to both Graph API. And as suggested by Microsoft we should use this when we're not concerned with Microsoft Accounts.
2) v2. When looking at the MS Graph API documentation it recommends using v2. Reportedly doesn't work for AzureAD Graph API? Allows the same app to be of multiple types (Web App/API and native), which we may or may not need to protect both our web api and our system api (which we're still trying to model).
B. How to manage the reply URL when our clients have different sub-domains?
I've noted the following options:
1) On the app registry, we add the reply urls for all of our customers. This seems okay because we only need to do it once, but feels odd. Is there a limit to the number of reply urls?
2) Have one reply url, but manage an external tool to route the responses to the correct instance, leveraging the state url parameter. Microsoft seems to be suggesting that in this link: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/architecture/multitenant-identity/authenticate I'm not sure if ADAL allows us to set the state for a return subdomain url though. Is this approach common?
3) Is it possible for each ServiceProvider instance in our client's directories to configure the reply url to their own subdomain? I feel like this would be the cleanest approach, but I don't see documentation for it. It would be nice if we could set the replyURL programmatically as well.
C. How to manage authorization to the Graph APIs (AzureAD and Microsoft Graph)
I've noted the following options:
1) Use the client credential flow, with a single application key (used for all clients). As clients subscribe they will admin consent with our app to give the application permission to their directory. Of course we'd do our best to keep that key secure. But if for some reason it was compromised this would put all of our clients at risk, not just the one instance that was compromised.
2) Same as 1, but use a certificate instead of a secret key. I understand this could be a little more secure, but I don't see how it wouldn't suffer from the same issue as 1.
3) Instead of using application permissions, use delegated permissions with an admin user. This would be good, in that it inherently prevents one instance of our app from talking to the wrong directory. However changes to the administrator may interrupt service; and I think it is best audit-wise that our application is responsible for the changes it makes. (Also, do delegated permissions allow for password resetting? I know for app permissions you need to run powershell script to upgrade the application's directory role)
4) Is there some way for the service principal to generate a unique key for it's directory on creation? can this be handed back to our app programmatically? Perhaps during admin consent?
Really good questions. I'll try to answer each to the best of my knowledge, but if someone has other ideas, feel free to comment/add your own answer.
A. Which application version to use
v2 should allow you to call Azure AD Graph API. The documentation you linked shows an example of specifying Azure AD Graph scopes:
GET https://login.microsoftonline.com/common/oauth2/v2.0/authorize?client_id=2d4d11a2-f814-46a7-890a-274a72a7309e&scope=https%3A%2F%2Fgraph.windows.net%2Fdirectory.read%20https%3A%2F2Fgraph.windows.net%2Fdirectory.write
The main decision point if you should use v2 is: Do you need to support Microsoft accounts which are not in an Azure AD? If yes, you need to use v2. Otherwise there is no problem using v1 (well, lack of dynamic permissions).
Since you are using Azure AD Graph to modify things, I'm going to guess pure Microsoft accounts will not work for you. I would recommend sticking with v1.
v2 also has some limits: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/develop/active-directory-v2-limitations
B. How to manage the reply URL when our clients have different sub-domains?
I could not find documentation on a limit for URLs. It could be that you can add however many you want. But I am not sure :)
If your subdomains look like this: https://customer.product.com, you can configure the reply URL as:
https://*.product.com
It will then allow any subdomain to be specified in the redirect_uri.
Though note that at the time of writing this, wildcard reply URLs are not supported in v2.
C. How to manage authorization to the Graph APIs (AzureAD and Microsoft Graph)
Using multiple keys makes no sense as they are all equal anyway :) Any of them could be used to call another tenant.
You can store the secret/certificate in an Azure Key Vault, and then use Azure AD Managed Service Identity to get it on app startup.
I would prefer using delegated permissions, but if the users of the app won't have the rights to do the things your app needs to do then that does not work.
I would just make sure it is not possible for a customer's instance to call to the APIs with another tenant id. And also make sure token caches are separated in such a way that it is not possible to get another tenant's access token (an in-memory cache on the instance would be good).